frayed at the edge

Deprived!

One of the casualties of last Thursday's stormy weather was the pole the holds up our satellite dish.  Malcolm had a very frustrating time on Friday, trying to get through to Sky to arrange for it to be repaired (it's somewhat annoying to have to speak to a call centre in India to arrange for a man to come from two miles away!!).  After enduring menus and queues, finally he was told that it would be fixed on Sunday morning.  So that meant  he was deprived of his weekly fix of football on Sky Soccer Saturday.  He was very glad when the engineer turned up early in Sunday morning

 

While Malcolm was chatting to the engineer, I had a wander round the garden and was surprised at how much I found to take photos of

the clematis is still flowering

 

a tiny primrose

 

snowdrops just peeeping through

 

a single yellow daisy

 

honeysuckle!

 

the climbing rose is still flowering

 

As Malcolm wasn't ensconced in front of the tv on Saturday afternoon, I was able to put up the Christmas tree without getting in his way, turning the contents of the boxes ......

 

........ into this

 

The gnomes are delighted to have their Christmas cushions  on their chairs

 

 

After all the bother with jamming thread and breaking needles, I had a rethink yesterday about how I was working.  First, I changed the type of needle I was using, abandonning the metallic needle in favour of my favourite jeans needle.  Then I fitted the extra spool holder, which is really meant for filling bobbins if you don't want to unthread the machine, or for when you are using the twin needle

 

Hooray - no more jammed thread.   It ran smoothly from the upright spool, and the jeans needle coped fine with the metallic thread ....... there was just one minor irritant - the bobbin thread ran out when all that was left to quilt was the small area at the top where the two pins are!

 

By the time I had stitched so many spirals, I felt like a cartoon character when their eyes spin round!

 

The scarf continues to grow

 

..... I have actually knitted the number of repeats given in the pattern, but I will just keep knitting until I have used up the rest of the yarn

 

When I decorate the house for Christmas, I put the wallhangings on the hall doors - rather than fill up today's post with all the photos, I thought I would show you one each day

 

I went for a walk after lunch today and took lots of animal and bird photos, to add to others that I took yesterday and this morning.  Here is a little taste - do come back tomorrow to see the rest!

 

There was a slight panic this morning .......

....... as we had more snow last night, and the road wasn't looking too good.  So why the panic - because this was the day for my housegroup Christmas lunch!  However, Lorraine, Tricia and Anne all braved the elements - although poor Tricia did have a slightly scary moment when her car skidded.  Unfortunately Ali was poorly and Lizzi had a prior appointment, so perhaps we will have to do it all agin in the New Year. 

The snow may cause travel problems, but it does make things look pretty

 

Of course Christmas lunch means pressies, so I had these little parcels ready

 

Then came the best bit of the day -  usually we have our lunch in the kitchen, but today I laid the dining table with Christmas placemats, the best cutlery ....... and

 

lots of lovely food - we all contributed a dish (although perhaps I should have taken the photo before putting the bottle of chilli sauce on the table!).. That's Lorraine's hands on the left, dressing her caesar salad

 

For dessert, Anne brought the makings for a pavlova.  When we finished the main course, I carefully put the cream in the middle of the meringue, then tastefully arranged the strawberries round the edge before filling the centre with raspberries ..... then forgot to take a photo!  So you will have to make do with this photo of the leftover portion (which Malcolm had after dinner)

 

Anne also brought some chocolate teddies - Malcolm has already eaten his, but I am saving mine!

 

I sat the teddy on my coaster to take the photo, so it occurred to me that you might like to see it (there may be a glass of wine sitting on it as I write this!)

 

so of course that means that showing you Malcolm's coaster too!

Snow!

Yes, the white stuff has arrived!  Yesterday there was just a little bit on the hills ......

 

 

........ but when we got up this morning, a couple of inches had fallen in the night

 

 

I decided that there was nothing urgent on the shopping list, and instead of heading into Hawick for the weekly shop, I baked the Christmas cake, turning this ......

 

...... into this

 

I've been busy working on the snippets wreath - but had a mishap on Saturday

 

That's the first needle I have broken in quite a while - in fact it is the first one i have broken on my new machine.  This is the back of the wallhanging, showing the first stage of the quilting

 

Having stitched the ivy leaves in green, I added some more in red, and quilted the centre

 

I added some baubles

 

then made a start to quilting silver spirals round the outside

 

I also stitched another Farmer's Wife block - I am going to have a break from this project until after Christmas, as I have rather a lot to do at the moment

 

I cut out the pieces according to the book, and you can see that the block is stitched properly ....... so why do I have two pieces left over?!

 

I have been getting on well with the scarf - I have finished the first side and have picked up the stitches from the provisional cast-on and started to knit the second half

 

To finish, some snowy scenes and several cute birds!

There hasn't been enough bright daylight .....

...... for some of the photos I wanted to take this week.  First, there is my lovely twiggy arrangement in the hall.  Because I had to turn the overhead light on, some of the colour is washed out, so you can't see that there are two colours of twigs, and they are all sparkly ....... and sadly you can't smell that they are infused with cinnamon and nutmeg (no, I haven't been very clever, I bought them in Sainsbury's on Monday when I did the  weekly shop!)

 

Then I wanted to take a photo of the little picture that I picked up from the framers, after Malcolm hung it under the picture of the hare.  But it was difficult to get a photo without reflections.  This was the best I could do - you can see the wallpaper on the facing wall, and a bit of the ceiling light!!

 

I usually take photos of the birds in the afternoon, but these days when I come in from the studio it is too dark (never mind, it's not long until we get to the shortest day).  So I made the effort to take these photos this morning when it was quite bright

 

 

 

I almost finished the Christmas tree wallhanging this afternoon.  I just have a few more bits of bling to add ........

 

........ but the one thing that did photograph clearly, despite the light levels, was this afternoon's cake.  This was just delicious - very sweet, but oh so tasty.

 

I can't remember all the ingredients, but there were cranberries, crushed biscuits and Ovaltine

 

I am planning to bake the Christmas cake at the weekend ....... whatever you are planning to do, I hope you have a good time.  Love Anne

 

ps - don't forget to pop in over the weekend to see the wonderful shadow of Melrose Abbey that I will be posting for Shadow Shot Sunday!

 

Gold!

I was heading round to the front garden this morning, to refill the bird feeders, when I saw a little bird sitting on the bin store

 

Oh dear - the camera was out in the studio, at the far end of the back garden. I ran to get it (well, walked very quickly!) and hurried back.  The little bird was still there, and sat there quite the thing as I crept closer .....

 

....... and closer - I looked at the little bird

 

and the little bird looked back at me

 

I went into the garden to take a photo from the other side ..... and it still sat there!

 

So what is this delightful little thing?

 

It's a goldcrest (probably a female).  According to my bird book, it is the smallest European bird, smaller even than a wren.  It is also described as being tame and approachable.  This is the first time I have seen one, so I am thrilled that I was able to get so close!

 

After that, the rest of the day was quite tame!  Lorraine, Tricia and Anne S. arrived for our regular get together.  After all the hard work getting things ready for the Fair on Saturday, I decided to have a day of playing with some fmq patterns.  Sorry, I forgot to take photos along the way (ok, I was too busy chatting!) but this is what I ended up with ...... a big sea anenome and two little ones, mussels, pebbles and seaweed

 

I then had a lot of fun just trying out different patterns.  This is a first attempt on a bit of scrap sandwich

 

This is the second, somewhat tidier, attempt

 

I concentrated hard on my spirals - they are gradually improving

 

I then did some squished spirals and another pattern which would be a good background filler

 

And finally ...... I just doodled

Slipping and sliding!

I had ordered something online at the start of the month, and waited and waited for it to arrive.  When it didn't, I emailed the company.  When they didn't teply I emailed again, and when there was no response, yesterday I phoned.  Profuse apologies were offered, somehow my order just hadn't been dealt with.  So I was delighted this morning when the postman came to the door with an envelope to be signed for  .......

 

.... followed by an email apologising again and saying that the item in question had been sent out recorded delivery, and that hopefully by the time I read the email, the parcel would have been delivered.  So what was it that I was so anxious to receive?  A Supreme Slider, which I am confident will magically transform my efforts at free motion quilting into works of art

 

The pictures on the back of the package make it all look so simple ........ I will let you know on Monday how I get on with my first attempts!

 

Last night I knitted my little swatch for the Glimpse scarf.  It proved to be quite straightforward!

 

The hole was really quite easy to make - I haven't done a pattern like this before, so I'm looking forward to knitting the scarf, as it is very pretty

 

The front garden was alive with sparrows this morning, but one little blue tit was brave enough to use the peanut feeder

 

I love the bold markings on the male sparrows - they would make a good quilting design ....

 

It's Friday, so of course that means it is time for cake!!  Today we had Annette's lovely light cupcakes ....

 

...... topped with chocolate sprinkles - delicious

 

Over the weekend, as well as playing with using my new Slider, I will also be making some more things for my sales table for next Saturday (oops, starting to panic slightly!!)  I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne

If you are on a diet ......

..... look away now!  We went up to Galashiels this morning, as Malcolm wanted to go to B&Q to buy more insulation for the loft - he has gradually been adding an extra layer, which is a big job as, because it is a single storey house, we have a lot of loft!!  Once that was purchased, and we had done a little bit of shopping, we had to decide where to go for lunch.  We could have had a delightful burger from the van which is always parked in B&Q's carpark ......

 

or we could have visited a certain well known fast-food chain (if you torture me I will admit that I am partial to a Big Mac ....... in fact you don't have to torture me, just tickle my feet!!)

 

However, good taste prevailed, and we went to Lochcarron, where we had the most wonderful Thai chicken soup, with cheese and onion bread

 

Back home, I quickly put the shopping away, before heading put for knit'n'natter ..... but I did take a moment to take aphoto of the new pots of herbs that I had bought for the kitchen windowsill ......

 

...... and yet another photo of this fabulous orchid

 

When I was in Kelso for knit'n'natter, I bought this month's Good Food magazine.  It was in a package which contained this calendar ......

 

....... and a recipe card for a choclate cheesecake, which I won't be tempted to make as it made with white chocolate, which I really don't like!

 

I hadn't yet decided what to knit with my lovely laceweight yarn, after frogging the shawl I had started, but then I saw this pretty scarf.  The pattern does look a little bit complicated, so I may just knit a little swatch first!

 

A silly photo to finish!  I took this first thing this morning through the back bedroom window.  It may look as if the sheep is standing on top of the wall, but really it is in the field behind the house!

Far from lazy daisy!

Another day, another attempt at the dreaded free motion quilting.  Today's pattern is 'pebbled daisy', and unlike a gentle embroidered lazy daisy, this one was hard work!  However, with a bit of perseverance (and a bit of bad language when the thread threw a wobbly, tangled and broke), the daisy was finished ...... and I am just pretending that one petal doesn't look as if it is makong a bid for freedom and heading for the corner!

 

Next, it was on to this week's Farmer's Wife blocks.  For the first block, I thought I would cheat just a little bit and not use the templates but do it the way I normally would, which was fine ....... except that I made the block to a finished size of 6" (so it actually measured six and a half), so a little bit of trimming had to be done!

 

The second block was also done without using the templates ...... although the fact that the finished size of the blocks is five and a half inches means that the pieces are slightly odd sizes.  Instead of cutting the main pieces with the corners cut off, then cutting triangle to fit, I cut big squares and litlle squares, stitched across the diagonals of the little squares, cut off the corners, giving me  nice neat pieces to join .....  

 

..... for the finished block

 

Despite the trials and tribulations of using templates and the slightly odd sizes, I am enjoying working my way through the blocks. 

 

I will have sashing between the blocks when I make them into a quilt, but for the moment I have butted them up on the design wall so that they take up less room, as I have quite a lot on the wall at the moment!

 

I had intended to make more for my sales table, but I started to feel a bit icky, so spent the afternoon napping on the couch!  However having just enjoyed a very nice dinner (cooked by Malcolm) I am feeling a bit better.  I am sure I will be fine again after a good night's sleep.

To finish, two photos of birds in the garden

 

I promised you chocolate ......

...... and here it is!  First chocolate for children ..... I used templates from a magazine to cut out stockings and mittens

 

 

which will be filled with chocolate coins

 

For the grown-ups (well, probably for Mums!) there are candle glasses filled with chocolates, and with a scented candle to put in the glass once the chocolates have been eaten

 

Next ..... the gingerbread biscuits.  Oh dear - I turned my back for two minutes on the first batch ..... and they got just a little bit overcooked!  Not quite burned, and just about edible

 

The second batch turned out better

 

Two simple ingredients to make some delicious icing ....

 

...... they may not win any prizes, but they are tasty and were easy to make

 

I had a bit more success with my latest attempt at free motion quilting.  This effort was based on Leah's pattern cracked paisley  .... it may not be the right shape, but I am pleased with it (I thought it looked a bit like figs, Malcolm thought it looked like onions!

 

I finished the Christmas card which I had started at Abbey Quilters on Tuesday night ..... it is folded Somerset patchwork, and was quick and simple to make

 

I can combine yesterday's day out at the Woolgathering with this week's knitting update!  I have started another pair of afterthought heel socks.....

 

...... although I still have to sew in the ends on the first pair (it's the bit of knitting that I don't like!!)

 

I was also working on another pair of fingerless mitts in cotton sock yarn, which I finished last night (apart from sewing in the dreaded ends!!)  This pair is for a friend who is allergic to wool - and I have given the first pair like this , that I did some weeks ago, to a friend who has painful hands due to arthritis.  The warmth from wearing them helps her joints, while leaving her fingers free to do things.

 

To finish, a photo of some sparrows on the birdbath ...... as you can see, there is a rather large stone in it at the moment.  That is because during some recent very windy weather, the top blew off!  I think Malcolm is going to get some sort of sealant/adhesive to fix it to the base

It takes more than a sharp frost ......

..... to kill off the beautiful climbing rose, which grows round the lounge window.  There are still buds, which are dark pink on the outside

 

getting paler as they start to open

 

and paler still

 

until, by the time they are fully open, they have turned completely white

 

The ornamental quince has flowered again (it quite often has a second flush of flowers at this time of year)

 

But this is the right time of year for the winter jasmine to be flowering!

 

When I was doing my weekly grocery shopping on Monday, I saw this book was half price, so of course it had to come home with me ........

 

For those of you not acquainted with Kirstie, it's rather hard to describe her ....... but you can find out more here and here.  There are all sorts of lovely things in the book - I just opened it at random to take this photo.  If you look closely at the cup with the teabag (click on the photo to enlarge it), you will see that they have been needlefelted!

 

When we were in the supermarket this morning, I bought some ready made gingerbread pastry(!) - I'll tell you more tomorrow!